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Pop jazz?
Bill Frisell and Charlie Hunter

BY JON GARELICK

A pop-music current runs through the work of jazz-guitarists Charlie Hunter and Bill Frisell. Hunter, a former guitarist with the Disposable Heroes of HipHoprisy, favors the funk and Afro-rhythms of the "groove" music scene (of which he was a forerunner). Frisell — a one-time denizen of downtown New York whose collaborators have included Charlie Haden, Julius Hemphill, and Paul Motian — has for the past several years been acknowledging folk, country, and rock. (One recent Frisell title was Nashville.) Hunter (who calls what he does "rhythm music) is urban and dance-oriented; Frisell is pastoral and atmospheric. On the new Bill Frisell with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones (his 15th album for Nonesuch), Frisell offers some new pieces as well as revisiting some of his old compositions and covering Stephen Foster’s "Hard Times" and the Henry Mancini chestnut "Moon River."

What’s surprising about the Frisell album isn’t the material but the ensemble. Holland and Jones — two of the most in-the-pocket avatars of the modern-jazz tradition — seem unlikely candidates to fill out this typically Frisellian laid-back Americana jazz dreamscape. On first listen, the choice of Jones is especially perplexing. Elvin’s legacy is in taking straight-ahead bebop swing to the limits of polyrhythmic assault — to the very edge of pure freedom. But here he is, in tune after tune, tapping out a steady four on the cymbal, accenting the backbeat when called for. There’s the occasional free-rolling drum break or tempoless ensemble passage, but nonetheless you might wonder why Frisell didn’t call on an old associate like fellow New York downtowner Joey Baron or roots-rock session man Jim Keltner.

Frisell layers his pieces in pastel harmonies, multi-tracking his guitar parts with both acoustic and electric, working off repeated melodies, using electronic loops as little darting scales. For the most part, Holland holds down the bottom end of the harmony while Elvin raps out the time. Frisell introduces "Tell Your Ma, Tell Your Pa" by playing a medium-tempo blues on electric guitar over free time from Elvin and harmonic embellishments from Holland. It isn’t until a full two minutes into the piece that Frisell starts chording a steady, loping beat on acoustic, with Holland and Elvin falling in behind him, and then cutting loose with electric on top. Just about every piece unfolds in a similar, relaxed manner — a series of imaginary landscapes. And then you begin to hear the elasticity of Elvin’s rhythm — his shuffling afterbeats on "Hard Times," his little triplets and rolls. And you know that what he and Holland provide is crucial to the album’s oneiric spell.

Hunter’s Songs from the Analog Playground (Blue Note) is a different story. In addition to the usual instrumentals, Hunter is for the first time using vocalists — the hip-hopster Mos Def, Theryl de Clouet (of the New Orleans funk band Galactic), and jazz singers Kurt Elling and Norah Jones. Sometimes the vocals sound ’70s new-age — Mos Def’s quasi-ecstatic chant on the percussion workout "Street Sounds," or Earth Wind & Fire’s "Mighty Mighty." The latter comes off as especially silly because de Clouet’s earthy lower register can’t justify the affirmative lyrics the way Maurice White’s soaring tenor on the original might have. And Jones’s "More Than This" is an American jazz take on Roxy Music’s take of American jazz.

The only vocals that sound integral — like themselves rather than a little bit of this and a little bit of that — are the hipster lingo of Kurt Elling’s "Desert Way" and Elling’s rendition (over a reprise of the Cubop beat of "Street Sounds") of the standard "Close Your Eyes." Maybe that’s because in their jumpy, swinging arrangements and angular lines they’re most like jazz. It’s not that the vocal pieces are bad (we also hear Jones on Nick Drake’s "Day Is Done," de Clouet on Willie Dixon’s "Spoonful," and Mos Def on Hunter’s "Creole"). They’re just beside the point. What you listen for on this — and most Hunter albums — is the rhythmic mesh of Hunter’s guitar and bass lines with drums and percussion, plus trad-jazz tenor sax (by John Ellis) as a roux. The groove is the thing, not solos or even songs. Frisell uses pop to get to jazz’s interior spaces. Hunter uses jazz as a springboard for booty-shaking pop.

The Charlie Hunter Quartet plays the Somerville Theatre next Thursday, November 1. Call (617) 931-2000.

Issue Date: October 25 - November 1, 2001